Japan
quake released stress Samples of rock
drilled from depths of the Pacific seafloor have revealed
the tremendous release of tectonic pressure that occurred
during the 2011 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake.
The findings
could have important implications for the understanding of
fault boundaries and tsunami risk near New Zealand, says a
Kiwi geologist involved the research.The new study, published today in the journal
Science, found that nearly all the stress built up at
the plate boundary near the epicentre was released in the
tsunami-generating magnitude 9.0 quake.

Researchers
on board the scientific drilling vessel Chikyu drilled boreholes into
the fault zone, 850 meters below the sea floor and almost
seven kilometers underwater (video of scientists aboard the
Chikyu identifying the fault zone in drill core samples can
be seen here).

The stresses
on rock samples were measured using electrical currents to
detect the extent of fracturing.

Dr Virginia
ToyThe results of the study indicated a nearly complete
drop in stress following the earthquake. Such a large
release is unusual, according to University of Otago
geologist Dr Virginia Toy.

"This
is significant because most earthquake faults only release a
small portion (typically 10%) of the stress in the crust
around them, not nearly 100% as in this case," she said in a
media release from the University of Otago.

Dr Toy
also said the results suggest that subduction zone faults in
other locations, including around New Zealand, need to be
more carefully examined. New Zealand has "so much of its
coastline exposed to the Pacific Ocean, which is ringed by
subduction zones, for example in Tonga-Kermadec, Hikurangi
and Chile."

"If the materials in the fault planes
are similar to those in the Japan Trench, it is likely they
will also be very frictionally weak and therefore that we
can also expect very large seafloor displacements when they
slip,"

"It means that we should be prepared for
other similar subduction zones to generate very large
tsunami."

Selected examples of media
coverage of the study can be found here.On the
science radar... Food and sleep, smelling in stereo, 3D printed stem cells, the return of Richard III and exploding robots.Solomon
Islands shaken, swamped The full extent
of the damage from Wednesday's magnitude 8.0 earthquake and
subsequent tsunami in the Solomon Islands is still to be
determined.While New
Zealanders enjoyed a sunny Waitangi Day holiday, the Solomon
Islands were shaken by a magnitude 8.0 quake with an
epicentre near the Santa Cruz Islands.

The quake triggered a tsunami which flooded several
islands, causing damage to villages. Tsunami warnings were
also issued for more distant coastlines, including New Zealand, but
lifted later in the day.

Professor James Goff, Director of
the Tsunami and Natural Hazards Research Group at the
University of New South Wales, commented to the
AusSMC:

"This part of the Solomon Islands
is in a particularly active part of the boundary between the
Australian and Pacific Plates, and has seen a swarm of
earthquakes recently. In geological terms, this is hot on
the heels of the 2007 event that occurred in the Western
Province and killed 52 people - an area of different plate
boundaries and different activity, but in reality we know
very little about the long-term earthquake and tsunami
activity of the entire Solomon Islands region and so cannot
say with any confidence whether this type of event we have
seen today is out of the ordinary or how often we might
expect it to happen in the future.

"Much work needs
to be done to improve our understanding of such events in
the Solomon Islands for the safety of both local and
regional communities."

Science panel up for a
Challenge A panel of top researchers
and some budding young scientists have been appointed to
identify New Zealand's National Science Challenges for the
Government.The panel will sift through hundreds
of submissions with the aim of identifying the top 10
challenges to put before the government by the end of
February. Selection criteria for
challenges includes the likelihood of impact, scientific
feasibility and overall benefit to New Zealand.
Announcing the panel, Science and Innovation Minister
Steven Joyce said, "Over the last few months we have had
excellent input from both the public and the science sector,
with hundreds of submissions, ideas and proposals on what
these key challenges should be."

"The final
challenges will help focus our overall science funding
investment, and help foster links across the research
community in New Zealand to maximise the impact of work
already underway in the Challenge areas.

Details
of the full panel can be found in a media releasefrom the
Ministry of Business and Innovation and Employment.

Quoted: Radio New Zealand"I'd be disappointed if these weren't very
visionary. You might never quite achieve it but you are
going to do a hell of a lot on the way through." - Dr Ian Ferguson on the National Science Challenges

New from the
SMC

Experts
Respond:Solomon Island
tsunami: Australian experts comment on the quake and
resulting tsunami in the Solomon Islands this week.

In the news:
Japan quake a stress reliever: Samples drilled from
the seafloor have revealed the extent of tectonic
stress released by the 2011 Tohoku quake.

Data viz guru joins
SciblogsSciblogs, the largest blog
network in Australasia, welcomes a new blogger this week,
with Dr Mike Dickison joining the fold.

Mike will
be blogging under the banner Pictures of Numbers, where he
will be looking at the increasingly popular area of data
visualisation and giving New Zealand scientists tips on how
to unlock the potential in their own data.

Recently Mike
teamed up with fellow Sciblogger Dr Siouxsie Wiles to
develop an infographic looking at the morbidly fascinating
topic of what New Zealanders die of.

Mike's background is
in zoology - he did his PhD on giant flightless birds. He
consults on information design and data visualisation. Read
more about him here.

Please note: hyperlinks
point, where possible, to the relevant abstract or paper.

Fairytale genetics: A
University of Auckland researcher and colleagues have
adapted methods from biology to examine patterns of
variation in a popular folktale - the Tale of the Kind and
the Unkind Girls, which appears in the Brothers Grimm
collection. Paralleling human genetic diversity, the
researchers found that versions of the folktale changed over
geographic distance and language barriers.Proceedings of the Royal Society
BTohoku quake a stress
reliever: The massive 2011 earthquake in Japan
released nearly all of the stress that had built up along
the plate boundary in that region, according to a new study.
The Expedition 343 team, which included a University of
Otago scientist, drilled bore-holes along the fault line on
the seafloor to examine the stress changes in rock layers
post-quake. They found that there had been a near complete
drop in stress following the earthquake. Images
available.Science'Listen
to your heart': Women who are better at listening
to their hearts - literally - tend to have a more positive
perception of their own body, according to new research. The
study found that accuracy in a heartbeat perception test was
linked with perception of one's body as an object, as
measured by a questionnaire. These findings have important
implications for understanding body image dissatisfaction
and clinical disorders which are linked to
self-objectification, such as anorexia.PLOS One

The
mothmobile: Forget about dogs driving cars, a new
study has put insects behind the wheel. Japanese researchers
have developed a two-wheeled robot which is driven by a male
silkmoth. The 'drivers' were able to steer the machine to a
target point releasing enticing female moth sex pheromones,
allowing researchers to closely monitor the moths neural
activity during goal-oriented behaviour. Video available here.Bioinspiration and
Biomimetics

Mobile networks
measure rain: Because raindrops absorb and scatter
the radio signals received by cellular communication towers,
cell phone communication networks could be used to monitor
rainfall, say Dutch researchers. They were able to use cell
networks in the Netherlands to record rainfall patterns and
suggest their method could be used in locales with poor
meteorological monitoring systems.PNAS

Digital text
easy on old eyes: Despite grumbling about the new
technology, older readers seem to find it easier to read
text on digital devices like e-readers and tablets. New
research used brainwave monitoring and eye tracking to show
that reading text on digital devices (as opposed plain old
paper) requires less neural effort for older individuals -
but not younger participants.PLOS One

Policy updates

Some
of the policy highlights from this week:

Science Challenge panel: A panel of 11
top researchers and young scientists have been appointed to identify New
Zealand's National Science Challenges for the Government.

Prime Minister John Key says it is “not the government’s preferred option” to make a fresh capital injection into the troubled state-owned coal miner, Solid Energy, but dodged journalists’ questions at his weekly press conference on whether that might prove necessary... More>>

NZCU Baywide says that once it was found to have committed a breach of a former staff member’s privacy, it had attempted to resolve the matter... the censure and remedies for its actions taken almost three years ago are “severe” but accepted, and will hopefully draw a line under the matter. More>>

PayPal has ceased processing payments for Mega, the file storage and encryption firm looking to join the New Zealand stock market via a reverse listing of TRS Investments, amid claims it is not a legitimate cloud storage service. More>>

The New Zealand government's operating deficit was smaller than expected in the first six months of the financial year, as the consumption and corporate tax take rose ahead of forecast in December, having lagged estimates in previous months. More>>